Canadian Cinematographer Magazine December 2018

CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

$4 December 2018 www.csc.ca

Catherine Lutes csc chases freedom in

Firecrackers Karim Hussain csc Seven in Heaven John Banovich csc VENICE in the Rocky Mountains

A publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers

FEATURES – VOLUME 10, NO. 7 DECEMBER 2018 Fostering cinematography in Canada since 1957.

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers was founded by a group of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa cameramen. Since then over 800 cinematographers and persons in associated occupations have joined the organization.

We facilitate the dissemination and exchange of technical information and endeavor to advance the knowledge and status of our members within the industry.

As an organization dedicated to furthering technical assistance, we maintain contact with non-partisan groups in our industry but have no political or union affiliation.

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Still from Firecrackers.

The CSC provides tangible recognition of the common bonds that link film and digital professionals, from the aspiring student and camera assistant to the news veteran and senior director of photography.

Taking Off: Catherine Lutes csc Chases Freedom in Firecrackers

By Fanen Chiahemen

The CSC is a not-for-profit organization run by volunteer board members of the society. Thank you to our sponsors for their continued support.

CORPORATE SPONSORS

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Credit: Jasper Savage

AC Lighting Inc. All Axis Remote Camera Systems Applied Electronics Limited Arri Canada Ltd. Canon Canada Inc. Codes Pro Media Cooke Optics Dazmo Camera Deluxe Toronto DMG Lumière FUJIFILM, North America Corporation FUJIFILM, Optical Devices Division Fusion Cine Henry’s Camera HD Source Inspired Image Picture Company Keslow Camera Kino Flo Lee Filters Mole-Richardson MOSS LED Inc. Nikon Canada Inc. PRG Panasonic Canada Panavision Canada REDLABdigital RED Red Square Motion Rosco Canada S1 Group Sigma SIM SIMMOD LENS Sony of Canada Ltd. Technically Yours Inc. Technicolor The Source Shop Urban Post Production Vistek Walter Klassen FX William F. White International Inc. Zeiss ZGC Inc. ZTV

Shooting Seven in Heaven By Karim Hussain csc

VENICE in the Rocky Mountains By John Banovich csc

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 2 4 6 8 9 10 32 34 36 Cover

From the Editor-In-Chief From the President In the News On Set Ed Higginson csc CSC Member Spotlight – Robert Scarborough csc Tech Column Masters Awards Production Notes/Calendar Actress Karena Evans in a still from Firecrackers.

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Canadian Cinematographer December 2018 Vol. 10, No. 7 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc EDITOR EMERITUS Donald Angus EXECUTIVE OFFICER Susan Saranchuk, susans@csc.ca EDITOR Fanen Chiahemen, editor@csc.ca COPY EDITOR Patty Guyader ART DIRECTION Berkeley Stat House WEBSITE www.csc.ca ADVERTISING SALES Guido Kondruss, gkondruss@rogers.com CSC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Phil Earnshaw csc Carlos Esteves csc Joan Hutton csc Antonin Lhotsky csc Bruno Philip csc Joseph Sunday PhD George Willis csc, sasc CSC EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT George Willis csc, sasc PAST PRESIDENT, ADVISOR Joan Hutton csc VICE PRESIDENTS Carlos Esteves csc, Toronto Bruno Philip csc, Montreal MEMBERSHIP CHAIRS Arthur Cooper csc Zoe Dirse csc EDUCATION CHAIRS Carlos Esteves csc George Willis csc, sasc AWARDS CHAIRS Andre Pienaar csc, sasc Samy Inayeh csc DIGITAL PORTALS Carolyn Wong (Content Manager) RELATIONSHIPS Gaston Bernier OFFICE / MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTIONS 131–3085 Kingston Road Toronto, Canada M1M 1P1 Tel: 416-266-0591; Fax: 416-266-3996 Email: admin@csc.ca, subscription@csc.ca

Canadian Cinematographer makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes; however, it cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed within the magazine are those of the authors and not necessarily of the publisher. Upon publication, Canadian Cinematographer acquires Canadian Serial Rights; copyright reverts to the writer after publication.Canadian Cinematographer is printed by Winnipeg Sun Commercial Print and is published 10 times a year.

One-year subscriptions are available in Canada for $40.00 for individuals and $80.00 for institutions, including HST. In U.S. rates are $45.00 and $90.00 for institutions in U.S. funds.

International subscriptions are $50.00 for individuals and $100.00 for institutions. Subscribe online at www.csc.ca.

ISSN 1918-8781 Canadian Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40013776 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses 131–3085 Kingston Road Toronto M1M 1P1 THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION.

2 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joan Hutton csc

I

always thought that cinematography was vitally important in filmmaking. Apparently that is not the case, according to a recent submission made to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part the federal government’s ongoing review of the Copyright Act. The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) asserts that screenwriters and directors are jointly the “authors of cinematographic works,” arguing that copyright protects the “expression of ideas” but not ideas themselves. Anyone can bring an idea or a concept to the table, but it is the screenwriters and the directors who articulate them into copyrightable form through their creativity. The WGC wants the copyright law amended to reflect this premise.

Basically it’s all about money. Giving screenwriters and directors co-authorship would be handing them a powerful bargaining chip with producers, and the financial remunerations could be significant.

Of course, the producers in the committee room, represented by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), “strenuously opposed” the WGC brief. CMPA certainly do not want this applecart upset, since the Copyright Act is totally weighted in their favour.

They contend that this issue has been settled decades ago through established practices and bargaining. No changes to authorship/ ownership were needed and thinking otherwise was simply wrong.

I don’t believe the WGC quest for copyright protection is wrong at all. Quite to the contrary, I think it’s very much on the mark, except it omits an important element in the collaboration equation. Good grief, “cinematographic” is the adverb of cinematography, and that’s us! We contribute as much as screenwriters and directors towards the expression of an idea. Perhaps, arguably, even more so at times.

Cinematographers are responsible for the look and the feel of the images they produce. Our creativity writes the visual language of films.

We give the “expression of ideas” life through our images on the screen for the entire world to see and experience. This is the culmination of the collaborative process between the screenwriter, director and the director of photography. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to think of one without the other in this cinematographic pursuit. To exclude cinematographers in any group quest that is looking for official copyright status as “authors of cinematographic works” is not only myopic, it is sheer arrogance.

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FROM THE PRESIDENT George A. Willis csc, sasc

B

orrowing a little from William Shakespeare – “To survey, or not to survey… that is the question.” I pose the question because on one hand, there are those who believe that a survey is a very useful tool when it comes to gathering opinions relevant to a specific subject or topic, while on the other hand, there are those who believe that a survey is simply a waste of time.

I happen to side with those who value the exercise, and for many reasons. In our case, we are attempting to gather information from the CSC membership. The important question is how else can we obtain information from our members with regard to their general perception of the Society?

Another reason is to seek validation of the manner in which the Society is run. Without a survey, this would be extremely difficult to judge. By conducting a survey, we stand a good chance of better understanding the way in which the Society is perceived. With the information that is gathered, we would be in a better position to provide more adequately for the membership.

Having said all of this, the one ingredient that is crucial to any survey is a response from those whom the survey targets. In this case, it is the membership of the Society. A response, either positive or negative, is essential for a survey to be effective. However, another component for a survey to be considered a success is the percentage of replies received from those polled.

While there is no definitive number of responses required for a survey, the hope is that more responses will offer better results. This then begs yet another question: what is the “magic number” or percentage that would indicate that a survey has been successful? Could responses from 60 per cent of those polled be considered a success? Or maybe 40 per cent might be considered more reasonable.

How about 15 per cent?

This is definitely food for thought because that is approximately the percentage of responses received from the survey. I would suggest that such a low percentage can hardly be considered a successful survey. We had hoped for a far greater response, but those are the figures and so that is what the Society must work with as it attempts to effectively address the questions posed in the survey.

The survey, actually referred to as the questionnaire, was sent to the membership in September.

Once the responses were received, they were collated into an Excel spreadsheet for easy reference.

This spreadsheet was sent to the membership in mid-November, and we trust that it will prove to be valuable as the various responses are considered. A Word document was sent along with the spreadsheet that offers a quick comparison where a simple “yes or “no” was required. More detailed information is accessible via the spreadsheet.

Even though the survey is now closed, it might still prove to be of value for the membership from a “comparison of opinions” point of view. You will note that those who responded have been designated as “Member # …” rather than being named. Little is to be gained by offering the members’ names along with their responses. However, the various responses and opinions do provide insight, therefore please take the time to view the spreadsheet, and if you would like to offer any observations and suggestions, your input is always considered to be extremely valuable.

4 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

ALEXA LF ARRI SIGNATURE PRIMES

AVAILABLE AT:

In The News

Emmy-nominated In His Father’s Shoes, Sea People, and Trial at Fortitude Bay. His documentaries include Desert Riders, The Boy from Geita and Keepers of the Magic.

Credit: Tobias Wang,Visualbass

IMAGO Announces 2019 IMAGO International Awards for Cinematography

Vic Sarin csc Receives DGC Lifetime Achievement Award The Directors Guild of Canada recently honoured cinematographer and director Vic Sarin csc with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 DGC Awards, which were presented on October 20 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto and headlined by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim’s Convenience) and directed by Charles Officer (Unarmed Verses, 21 Thunder). As a director, Sarin has won recognition for a diverse range of films such as the Genienominated feature Cold Comfort; the

IMAGO announced recently that the 2019 and second IMAGO International Awards for Cinematography will be held in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 16, hosted by the Serbian Society of Cinematographers. Awards will be announced in the following categories: Best Cinematography for a Feature Film, Best Cinematography for a Television Drama, Best Cinematography for a Documentary Film, Best Cinematography for Student Film and Emerging Young Cinematographer. Each member society can submit one film per category. The deadline for receipt of online submission forms and film screeners is December 15, 2018. More information is available at imagoawards.org.

Pinewood Toronto Studios Breaks Ground on 200,000-SquareFoot Expansion Pinewood Toronto Studios in October

officially broke ground on its multistage expansion. In addition to the previously announced 170,000 square feet, Pinewood Toronto Studios announced an additional 30,000 square feet will be added to the plans, bringing the total new production space to 200,000 square feet of sound stages and support space. With this expansion, Pinewood Toronto Studios becomes the largest production studio in Canada with 525,000 square feet overall.

Comedians Form New TV and Film Studio Several of Canada’s best comedians have joined forces to create Home Invasion Studios, a new film and TV production company with a comedic edge to produce content across all platforms. Comedian, writer and director David Merry founded Home Invasion Studios after leaving another production company as creative director to establish a content house with a specialty in comedy. He approached long-time comedy veteran pals Tim Steeves and George Westerholm – formerly from the Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, among other shows – to come on board.

The company just finished production of their first hour-long comedy special, Grandma Used to Heckle Me, with comedian Jeff Leeson. Home Invasion Studios

Credit: Tom Sandler

Michael Kashuba Awarded William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship

(From left) Vice President of Business Development Rick Perotto, Chairman/ CEO Paul Bronfman and Michael Kashuba.

6 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

CSC student member Michael Kashuba was recently awarded the William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship. Paul Bronfman, chairman/CEO of the company, and Rick Perotto, vice president of business development, presented the $3000 award to Kashuba – who is in his final year in the film and TV production program at Humber College (North Campus) – at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11.

The William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship was created to provide a new generation of Canadian cinematographers with access to post-secondary hard skills training and development. Applicants are adjudicated by a scholarship committee which choses the successful candidate by taking into account academic achievement, extra-curricular activities and interests, community involvement and awards.

Reggie Modlich

Regula (Reggie) Modlich, wife of award-winning cinematographer Nikos Evdemon csc, passed away on September 23, 2018. Born in 1939 in Zurich, Switzerland, and raised partly in Germany, Modlich immigrated to Canada in 1957. She worked as a professional urban planner from 1963 to 1994, and her clients included the cities of Toronto and Oshawa and the town of Aurora. She pushed for gender-responsive planning in Toronto through her work as an editor of Women Plan Toronto (1985-2000) and through Toronto Women’s City Alliance, where she was one of the founding members in 2004. For a couple of decades, she also served as the editor of Women & Environments International Magazine and wrote many articles for Progressive Planning magazine. In 1988, she was nominated for the YWCA Women of The Year award, and in 1995 received the City of Toronto’s Constance E. Hamilton Award on the Status of Women. Right up until her death, she fought tirelessly for human rights, gender equality and affordable housing. Modlich died peacefully in her home in Toronto with her family present, including her first son Emmanuel Evdemon, his wife Marie Bedard, and their children Luka and Emma; her second son Andreas Evdemon and his wife Kelly Gilbert; and Nikos, her partner of 50 years. also recently optioned their first feature film, a horror, to Wald Pictures in Hollywood with Humber College’s professor of comedy, Larry Horowitz. Projects in scripted, unscripted, reality and game shows are also in development.

The 2019-2021 CMPA-DGC Standard Agreement will take effect on January 1, 2019, and will apply to all productions in Canada, excluding British Columbia and Quebec, commencing principal photography on or after that date.

Canada’s Independent Producers and Directors Ratify New CMPA-DGC Standard Agreement

Take 5 Productions Hires Nick Iannelli

In early October, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Media Producers Association jointly announced the ratification of a new DGC-CMPA Standard Agreement. The three-year deal establishes the terms, conditions and rates for directors and other professional crew members engaged in film, television and digital media productions.

The two groups reached an agreement in principle in July after constructive negotiations between the parties. The newly ratified accord gives directors a 2.5 per cent wage increase in 2019, followed by 3 per cent increases in 2020 and 2021. Crew members will see a general yearly wage increase of 3 per cent in each of the three years of the deal.

Toronto-based Take 5 Productions announced in October it has appointed Nick Iannelli EVP of postproduction, replacing Bill Goddard, who had been with Take 5 since the company’s 2009 launch.

Iannelli previously served as Deluxe’s SVP of postproduction for 15 years. In his new role, he will also support corporate growth initiatives for the company, which currently performs post and visual effects on Vikings, Into the Badlands, The Handmaid’s Tale, Condor and Halo.

Follow-Me Adds Hardware to Portfolio A.C. Lighting Inc. recently added Follow-Me’s hardware solutions to its product portfolio – the new FollowMe Mouse console and the new Fader

Console, both of which enable users direct tactile control of the Follow-Me remote follow spot control system. The Mouse Console provides an ergonomic handle for prolonged usage and proportional control for smooth and accurate targeting. It is PoE connected and has tow encoders and buttons that can easily be mapped to fixtures or target parameters. The Fader Console provides an additional four faders, encoders and buttons for fixture parameter, camera function or z-height off-set functions. It connects to the mouse via a 4pin XLR.

Cinefade Awarded cinec Award 2018 Cinefade founder Oliver Janesh Christiansen and cmotion founder Christian Tschida were awarded this year’s cinec Award for Camera Technology. Launched in 2016, Cinefade is a unique camera system that enables cinematographers to gradually vary the sharpness of the background in a motion picture shot at constant exposure, while keeping the foreground in focus. The judges recognized Cinefade as a new and innovative storytelling tool.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

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Credit: Courtesy of the Evdemon family

Remembering Rights Activist and Wife of Nikos Evdemon csc

Credit: Catherine Beauchamp

On Set

Claudine Sauvé csc on the set of the TV series Le Monstre, directed by Patrice Sauvé.

Credit: Petr Maur

Christopher Mably csc (right) and key grip Derek Teakle in front of hundreds of volunteer extras during a commercial shoot for Toronto’s SickKids.

Credit: Eric Zachanowich

Above: Associate member Christian Bielz during the shoot of the TV movie The Narcissist.

Left: The camera department on the production of Percy.

Back row (left to right): Associate member Richard Wilmot, Juan Panelli, affiliate member Pierre Branconnier, Luc Montpellier csc, Matthew Muszalski and Ryan Wuckert. Front row (left to right): Jay Andrews, Chris Howell, Mark Ekin and Len Peterson.

ACCEPTANCES / AWARDS / NOMINATIONS / Justin Beattie, associate member (cinematographer and executive producer) LUBA (feature), winner: Best International Feature & Audience Choice Award; nominated: Best Cinematography in a Feature, New Mexico Borderlands Film Festival, October 2-7, Las Cruces, New Mexico Evan Prosofsky csc (cinematographer) Hunger (music video), nominated: Best Music Video and Best Cinematography in a Music Video award, Camerimage

8 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

International Film Festival, November 10-17, Bydgoszcz, Poland Brad Rushing csc (DP) Three Days in The Hole (short), accepted: Rome International Film Festival, November 4, Rome City Auditorium Othello Ubalde, associate member (cinematographer) Premonitions of a Firing (short), nominated: Commffest Global Community Film & Arts Festival, October 12, Toronto

Edward B. Higginson csc

Credit: John Narvali

1935-2018

Ed Higginson csc receiving the Bill Hilson Award in 2001.

T

he Canadian film and television industry has lost one of its pioneers and talented cinematographers.

To many of his friends and colleagues, Edward B. Higginson csc was known simply as “Higgy” and was as renowned for his generosity of spirit as he was for his knowledge.

Higginson was born and raised in Toronto, and as a 13-year-old began experimenting with an 8 mm camera. Little did he know that his youthful pastime was paving the way for an extraordinary career. While still a teenager, Higginson acquired a 16 mm Bolex camera and in 1952 became one of the first cameramen for the newly formed CBC broadcast division, shooting news film for $35 a story.

Higginson remained with the CBC for 19 years, where he spent part of his time at its London bureau teamed with legendary newsman Morley Safer. Europe, the Middle East and Africa were their beats. They covered disasters, major sporting events and armed conflicts, such as the sectarian violence in Belfast, the vicious fight for independence in Algeria, and the deadly war between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

On August 13, 1961, Higginson and Safer found themselves at the vanguard to

history. They were the initial news crew on the scene in Berlin at the height of the Cold War to document the first large concrete slabs being put into place for what became the Berlin Wall. Higginson’s film footage, in today’s parlance, went viral, being shown on television sets and in movie theatres around the world.

Higginson’s penchant for experimentation continued into adulthood, where he and Safer were continuously attempting to improve the presentation of television news. News footage was filmed silent during the 1950s and early ‘60s because the equipment needed to shoot with sound required heavy, bulky equipment, and the meticulous recording process was extremely time consuming. Sound at the time was firmly in the domain of higherend entertainment films. But Higginson was determined to change that. On assignment in Rome to film a half-hour documentary for the CBC show Newsmagazine, Higginson shot and recorded sound with a massive Auricon camera. It took many long hours to accomplish the feat, but in the end every single frame of film was accompanied with sound. This wall-to-wall audio in the Newsmagazine project created a new sense of authenticity and intimacy and is credited with raising the production bar for future news reports and documentaries.

Higginson travelled the world as a news and documentary cinematographer, but he also branched into docudramas, MOWs and features. Besides the CBC, Higginson shot productions for CTV, TVOntario, HBO and numerous film companies in Toronto. Higginson was a much respected and accomplished director of photography, which was reflected in 1975 when he won the CSC Documentary Cinematography Award for his outstanding work in the CTV documentary Keeping the Peace.

Later in 1985, Higginson received a Genie nomination for riveting visuals in the dramatic feature Isaac Littlefeathers. For many years, the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax

paid tribute to Higginson by naming an award after him. The Ed Higginson Cinematography Award was presented yearly to an individual for excellence in the craft of cinematography.

While being known as a top Canadian director of photography would have been more than enough for most people, it wasn’t so for Higginson. Besides being a cinematographer, he developed a parallel career being the co-founder of three highly successful and iconic film processing labs in Toronto. The first was Best Film Labs, founded in 1954, where Higginson was co-owner for nine years before leaving in 1963. His second processing venture was with PFA Labs in 1972, which later became PFA Film and Video. Higginson and his partners sold their PFA interests in 1988. But it was in 1996, when Higginson partnered with his friend and colleague Al Lindsay to open The Lab in Toronto Inc., that Higginson stored away his camera and devoted his energy to being president of the newly formed company. The Lab was an instant industry hit, building a reputation for quality work and outstanding service. Cinematographers, producers and directors alike knew they could trust Higginson to go the distance for their projects. Higginson was also known for reaching out to new and struggling filmmakers with his sage advice, often processing their films for free. Higginson had an undeniable impact on the film industry through the decades, which was reflected in 2001 when he received the CSC’s Bill Hilson Award “for outstanding service contributing to the development of the motion picture industry in Canada.” With the rise of the digital age and the decline of film, the Lab was sold in 2005 and Higginson moved into retirement.

For those who knew Higginson, he is remembered fondly for his infectious smile, hearty laugh and good nature.

Edward B. Higginson csc passed away on August 15, 2018, after battling diabetes for several years. He was 82.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

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Obituary

In Memoriam

Who have been your mentors or teachers?

My professor for third-year cinematography was Marcus Elliott, who taught me a lot. I am pretty sure he only taught that one year, so I feel lucky to have learned from him. I learned so much from him about lighting, and his sets were some of the first I ever set foot on. Henry Less was the first guy to trust me with a camera, and I ended up shooting a lot with Henry over the years and met a lot of great people through the shows I worked on with him. He was the first to tell me, “Always shoot on the shadow side.” It seems obvious now, but at the time it was the first thing about cinematography that really had an impact on me.

What films or other works of art have made the biggest impression on you?

I am most influenced by my emotional reactions to things. Whether it be a piece of literature, music or a doc about the ocean, it all has an effect on the way I tell stories. I remember watching Magnolia on double VHS and I was floored. I had never seen anything like that. The way the camera moved, the incredible performances, the photography, that’s the movie I wanted to make because it made us all feel something really intense. I also remember watching Shine, starring Geoffrey Rush. I was probably 16 or 17, and I remember being completely glued to it for years after that because of the emotional reaction I had to it.

How did you get started in the business?

I went to Humber College for film and was lucky enough to be asked right after I graduated to PA on a music video for 235 Films. I ended up PAing on commercials and music videos for about a year before I started gripping and sparking while continuing to shoot anything I could.

10 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

Who are the cinematographers who inspire you?

Conrad Hall asc was the first cinematographer whose name I actually knew. I remember watching Searching for Bobby Fischer when I was young and not knowing what it was I loved so much about the photography, but just being aware of how beautiful it was. Gordon Willis asc was also so visually creative and gutsy. I love the work of Tim Orr, Darius Khondji asc, afc, Lance Acord asc, Harris Savides asc and Christopher Doyle hksc.

Most recently, Hoyte van Hoytema asc, fsf, nsc has made me excited to be doing what I do.

Name some of your professional highlights?

Winning my first CSC Award meant a lot to me. It was the first time I ever really considered myself part of the “group.”

Before that moment, I’d really looked up to those people, and then I felt like I was among them. Working with Mark McKinney on Room for Rent was something I thought would never happen. I have been a fan of Kids in the Hall since I was a kid, and he was a great collaborator.

What is one of your most memorable moments on set?

It was between takes on Room for Rent and Mark McKinney said something in German to Stephnie Weir, who was playing his wife in the film. I poked my head out from behind the camera and recited a line from the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. Mark turned to me and started reciting lines from the movie, and then pointed at me and I finished the lines from the scene. The whole crew stopped and applauded. That was pretty damn special.

What do you like best about what you do?

I love that every day is a new challenge.

Every set, every location is different and requires a unique approach. I love that my job is constantly changing and keeps me on my toes. The best part, really, is not having to work in an office. And I love that the crew is always a group of sort-of misfits; that makes me happy.

What do you like least about what you do?

The hours. I think it’s a little crazy that we have all agreed that 12- to 14-hour days are “normal.” No one at hour 14 is doing their best work. Things always get done, but it’s never anyone’s best foot forward. I am working on Baroness Von Sketch Show Season Four right now and, amazingly, we shoot 10-hour days. Those hours make me feel like a normal human with a little bit of a life. I think more shows should take the lead on more reasonable working hours if they want to keep the quality of their show to a higher level.

What do you think has been the greatest invention (related to your craft)?

This sounds crazy in an industry full of amazing inventions, but I still marvel over the C-Stand. It’s one of the most – if not the most – helpful tool on any set. Every department uses them. I think everyone should have a couple lying around their house just in case.

How can others follow your work?

People can check out my work on my website: robscarborough.ca

Credit: Eric Moran

CSC Member Spotlight

Robert Scarborough csc

October 11, 2018, Toronto

HD Source

4TH ANNUAL OPEN HOUSE

Brian Reid of Technicolor with Walter Villamar

Sol Comerchero of Vitec with David West.

Appetizers and refreshments were provided

Kim Hutchison of SHAPE with Richard Fox

Greg Prentiss of Block Battery

Peter Crevier of Dynamic Video with Daniel Abboud

Steve Megaffin and Jean De Montagne of Rosco DMG

Gee Mann with Nigel Akam

Susan Saranchuk of CSC with Michael Grippo csc

Luc Lamarre of Canon with Jay Kemp

Photos by: Bert Denda

HDSource Entrance

Mike Fawcett of Panasonic with Ahmad Iftakhar Steven Tsushima with Dave Sanders Enter to win! Prize provided by SHAPE

12 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

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13

taking off

Catherine Lutes csc chases freedom in

Firecrackers

By Fanen Chiahemen

14 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

“The camera style was very loose, and so part of that was about following the action of what was happening, which are some skills you learn from documentary for sure. Shooting with one eye on the camera and one eye open so that you are looking at what’s going on and you can react quickly.”

Michaela Kurimsky (Lou) and Karena Evans (Chantal) in a still from Firecrackers.

I

n the feature drama Firecrackers, two best friends, Lou and Chantal, who have long dreamed about escaping their repressive, rural Ontario town for New York, find themselves finally ready to break away. But their plans for freedom are threatened when a run-in with Lou’s possessive ex-boyfriend the night before the girls depart leads them to commit a drastic act that could jeopardize their chances of ever leaving. The film is an expansion of Saskatoon-born Jasmin Mozaffari’s 2013 short film of the same name, and the writer-director enlisted Catherine Lutes csc to enhance the visuals of the full-length version.

“She liked what the short film looked like, so she wanted to take it a little bit further,” Lutes says. “We always talked about it feeling very immediate and always being with the main character, Lou. The camera always had to feel like we were there with her and there was always an immediacy and an energy.”

Although critics have compared the film to those of socialrealist auteurs like Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay, Lutes says she showed Mozaffari a lot of Nan Goldin photos as a visual reference. “I just like the rawness of them with a nice mix of very strong colours, and we reacted well to that,” the DP says. “We also shared still photos from some very young photographers, Instagram kind of folks, just to have that younger energy that we were looking for.”

When preparing for a film, Lutes says she likes to spend some time with the director going through the script from an emotional standpoint before getting into the technical parameters. “And then when you get to set, if the plan that you have goes out the window, then you have those emotional core moments in the back of your mind and that kind of motivates the choices that you make with the camera and with lighting as well,” she says.

For Firecrackers Lutes was part of the rehearsal process because the two leads, Michaela Kurimsky (Lou) and Karena Evans (Chantal), were fairly inexperienced actors. “I would have a small camera with me and I would just be with them in their faces, so they started to get used to that feeling of having somebody else there as part of it,” Lutes says.

Having shot a lot of documentaries, Lutes says she is used to creating simple setups using natural light that can go far. “The camera style was very loose, and so part of that was about following the action of what was happening, which are some skills you learn from documentary for sure,” she observes. “Shooting with one eye on the camera and one eye open so that you are looking at what’s going on and you can react quickly.”

Firecrackers was shot in the summer of 2017 throughout Ontario, primarily in Hamilton and St. Thomas, with a lot of the scenes set in Lou’s cramped home and in dingy bars. “Some of the locations were not the most pleasant to be around or were very small, but I think that added a nice realism to it,” Lutes says. “The house that we shot it in was very tiny, but it brought so much to the film. It was actually a little bit freeing in a way because we just kept everything outside of the spaces that we were filming in, and it allowed me to move with the actors and be very free in the camera style. So I tried to make that a mandate going into every location – no gear comes into the room; the room has to be dressed 360 degrees; outside the windows should be clear aside from what we set up lighting-wise. Because I find so often you’re on a big set and then you see some little moment Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

15

Credit for both photos: Marlo Billet

Above: Catherine Lutes csc and actor Callum Thompson prepare to shoot a scene. Lutes relied heavily on a combination of handheld and Easyrig Vario 5 with Cinema Flex Vest for shooting the film.Below: Director Jasmin Mozaffari works with actor Michaela Kurimsky to prepare for a scene.

that you want, but to turn around or to look a little bit to your left, it’s packed to the brims with art department and camera gear, so it was nice to keep it small and keep everything out the way. It let it be about the camera and the performance.”

She would often have to find ways to heighten the reality in certain scenes, while still keeping the lighting natural. “There’s a scene where Lou screws up and has a sexual encounter with her mother’s boyfriend. It’s a night scene, and I always knew that I wanted it to feel a little bit surreal,” Lutes recalls. “It’s dark, but the curtains are casting a weird pattern on the characters a little bit, and that was something that felt right in that moment. So that was just with HMIs outside the windows through curtains,

16 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

and then we brought some curtains in closer to the actors to create a harder shape and pattern when we could. And then I think there was just a minimal amount of fill in the room using [ARRI] SkyPanels. We had one SkyPanel on the show that became a bit of a workhorse for night scenes, and an M18 that we’d use for harder sun. I’m sure in that scene we were using that as well as sort of a night source through the window.”

It was also important that the oppressiveness of the town came through all the time, she says. “We never wanted it to feel too pretty or to feel like you’re looking at it and saying, ‘What’s wrong with living there?’ It always had to feel a little bit oppressive even when you’re outside,” she explains. “And part of that was embracing a bit of the harsh sunlight. It had to be harsh, hard and a little bit ugly.”

In daytime exteriors, she “Some of the locations says, “We weren’t even uswere not the most ing very big fabrics, which pleasant to be around I normally would rely on pretty heavily, but because or were very small, but we wanted that harsher sun, I think that added a nice we were just using handheld bounces and that’s about realism to it. The house it. I guess that’s the benefit that we shot it in was also of moving quite quickly very tiny, but it brought – you don’t have all day to shoot a scene, so a consisso much to the film. It tency of light is a little easier was actually a little bit to work with than if you’re shooting something over a freeing in a way because day or two.” we just kept everything Although the look of the film is fairly bright in the outside of the spaces that beginning, it darkens as the we were filming in, and it story progresses. “The lightallowed me to move with ing becomes a little more subdued and the camera as the actors and be very well,” Lutes remarks. “We free in the camera style.” slowed things down with the characters as it gets a little bit sadder and things get a little bit worse. At the beginning there’s a lot more energy, and the opening scene is very contrasty and saturated and bright, and there’s a lot of harsh, bright colour. It kind of dies down a little bit as the story goes.”

Lutes employed an ALEXA Mini and with Zeiss Super Speeds, which she likes for their soft quality and speed. “Not having huge lighting setups at night kind of needs a fastness on the lens. And they’re very small. I was really trying to create quite a small package for handheld work, and we tried to keep the camera build fairly small because it’s basically just on me all the time, and I was always waiting for the magic moments to grab so it definitely was something that needed to stay small and lightweight, nimble and easy to move fast.”

The majority of the film is handheld with a few quieter moments on sticks. Steadicam was used in a scene where the girls

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The Sony F55 has a very sharp sensor, and it was important to me to take the edge off. The miniS4/i lenses helped me do that but without making the image look soft. The bar scenes are where the warmth of these lenses really came through. We wanted warmth in a place that people typically think might be harsh or cold. There’s an underlying noir feel. It’s sort of a Western, where the cars are the horses, a big street duel, and throughout it all the images looked gorgeous, with nice contrast.

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ple who know what they want or know what they don’t want but are also very open to collaborating,” a quality both Mozaffari and Rozema shared, although there were some differences.

“Jasmin is kind of incredible because, for someone who is young and for being very early in her career, she has a confidence that’s incredible and also an intelligence that backs up that confidence,” the DP muses. “It’s like she has already had years of experience without those years. And, interestingly, working with Patricia, who is so comfortable, the set is so comfortable for everybody, it was like she was the best party host. Every crew member was greeted with openness and kindness and felt like they were a part of the process. It was a really beautiful crew and relationship there that felt really nice, and I feel like part of that is the environment that Patricia created.”

Reflecting on what drew her to these two films, Lutes says, “With Firecrackers I feel like I’ve had that film in me for a long time. Something about the style of it and the story; it was a film I feel like I enjoy watching. A lot of my favourite films have a tone that feels similar, and then meeting Jasmin, I just had a really great feeling about her. And with Patricia’s movie, I just thought it was a really cool project. It’s special to be part of something like that, and it was a great playground for us to try things out.”

Credit: Michaela Kurimsky

play in a shopping cart in a parking lot after committing an act of vandalism. “They feel this sense of freedom that ultimately gets squashed and doesn’t survive, but it’s a moment of them feeling a little bit liberated and free,” Lutes says. “And that was our one big Steadicam day. I think we also shot some of that slow motion as well just to slow it down after so much craziness because right before that is the scene where she smashes the car, and it felt very alive and frantic and frenetic.”

Lutes was surprised at the effect shooting that scene had on her as a DP. “It was one of the first times that I’ve felt so much adrenaline as a camera operator being so close to the action and being so involved,” she recalls. “You know, we’re all waiting – ‘Is the car window going to smash?’ We had one chance at it, and I started to run with them. And after we’d done the take, I feel like my heart rate was up with theirs as well. You really kind of immerse yourself in the emotion of a scene. It was an interesting relationship that developed between myself and the actors; I sort of felt a part of what they were going through. Definitely on documentary shoots you feel things like that because people are telling you these very real things and you’re there having to still be a human, but this is the fist time in a narrative film that I’ve felt that way or that I was trying to embrace it as well. If I could feel what they were feeling, then hopefully my camera would be almost a character in those moments as well.”

After the Firecrackers shoot, Lutes had the opportunity to experience a different kind of liberation while shooting Mouthpiece, an adaptation of the award-winning two-woman play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava that depicts a young woman’s exploration of her feminist ideals as she attempts to craft a fitting eulogy for her mother. By contrast to Mozaffari’s film, Mouthpiece – directed by industry veteran Patricia Rozema – had a budget that was “eight times the budget of Firecrakers,” Lutes says.

She was therefore able to have a full crew and do large lighting setups on the film, which features musical numbers, as well as two actresses (Nostbakken and Sadava) playing one character. “[Rozema] kept saying to me, ‘Don’t let me be safe; we have to play, and we have to try things,’” Lutes recalls. “And that was freeing. I think she was really approaching this film as a place to play a little bit and have a little sense of freedom. It didn’t have to feel like a commercial Hollywood movie.”

She notes that the best directors she has worked with are “peo-

Catherine Lutes csc with 2nd AC Matt Veen and other cast and crew in the water shooting a baptism scene. Underwater scenes for the film were shot using the Vantage Scubacam bag.

A screening of Firecrackers was held for CSC, CCE and DGC members in Toronto in September. Arthur Cooper csc moderated the Q&A after the screening with Catherine Lutes csc, along with the film’s editor Simone Smith.

18 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

Credit: Carolyn Wong

Screening and Q&A for Firecrackers September 30, 2018 The Royal Theatre, Toronto

“With Firecrackers I feel like I’ve had that film in me for a long time.

Something about the style of it and the story; it was a film I feel like I enjoy watching. A lot of my favourite films have a tone that feels similar.”

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www.panavision.comCanadian Cinematographer - December 2018 • 21

shooting

Seven in Heaven

By Karim Hussain

csc

| All set photos by Jasper Savage

C

hris Eigeman, known primarily as an actor on Gilmore Girls and various Whit Stillman movies, was preparing his second feature as a director with Blumhouse (of Get Out, Split and Paranormal Activity fame) and Universal Pictures. Seven in Heaven is a dreamy, ambiguous yet comedic nightmare about a boy named Jude (Travis Tope) who ends up in a seemingly endless vortex of parallel universes where the portal is a closet that he and another young woman named June (Haley Ramm) enter while playing the party game Seven in Heaven.

A sort of dimension-busting After Hours with a firm nod to ‘70s teen horror movies such as Phantasm, it was a perfect match. I really liked Chris’ first feature, Turn the River, and after a Skype, we hit it off. It was time to hit the floor running, as Seven in Heaven was going to be shooting in the suburbs of Toronto in the summer of 2017, a challenge in and of itself as the primarily night-set movie was going to be photographed when the days were the longest in the year and the skies wouldn’t be shootable until nearly 10 p.m.

PREP

Planning, as always, was the key. For at least two months in advance of official prep, Chris and I would Skype regularly, and we meticulously came up with a mise-en-scène plan and shot list that would be our very precise bible for the brief 22-day shoot. Like most Blumhouse movies, this was going to be low budget, not as low as Blumhouse can go sometimes, but certainly low enough to make shooting in Toronto during busy season a challenge. Chris and I knowing what we wanted, in extremely precise detail, was a priority.

Since it was a movie for Universal Pictures to distribute (ironic, since the movie ended up being exclusively released on Netflix), there was no pressure to shoot the movie at 4K (the Netflix original standard), so we could use my favourite cameras, the ARRI ALEXA Mini and

20 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

“Working with Chris was brilliant, his experience as a performer was not only a great help to his cast, but his flexibility, good humour, knowledge and passion for world cinema was a great plus.”

ARRI AMIRA for both A and B photography at 2K. To our great surprise, Universal didn’t care at all about 4K and were perfectly happy with a 2K deliverable. I had also done some tests recently and found that when projected, 2K Pro Res 4444 XQ blown up to 4K looked closer to film than originating at 3.2K or even ARRI RAW on the ALEXA Mini. This also opened the door to using certain vintage lenses that wouldn’t be compatible with a sensor larger than standard Super 35.

For diffusion we used Tiffen’s DDFX line (Digital Diffusion) that can soften an image without creating a halo over highlights. To add a twist, we decided

to use an old-school technique that I’ve been employing on various productions recently – human grease. Yep, that’s the technical term I like to use when literally slapping my sweaty palm on either a clear or diffusion filter in a direct, non-smeared manner. It creates a unique glow to the image and softens things up, depending on the level of grease you smack on. Then when more dramatic, streaky flares are needed, I bring out the big guns and use nose grease, which is literally the grease from my nose smeared onto the filter in a “tic-tac-toe” pattern with my pinky finger.

This can create really evocative effects with highlights, and even better, it’s free!

Seven in Heaven takes place in various

From left: Karim Hussain csc and lamp.

Staircase Steadicam with dolly grip Patrick King and operator Steven French.

Seven In Heaven slates.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

21

Clockwise: Cemetery scene Karim Hussain csc.

Haley Ramm and Travis Tope running.

Gary Cole, Travis Tope and Steven French on Steadicam.

22 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

parallel universes, depending on where our lead characters of Jude and June end up after they pass through the closet. We broke it down into four specific worlds.

The normal world would be more desaturated and fit in a more subtle colour palette, have broader lighting and a softer texture over all. Then when we went to the nightmare worlds, we would use different lenses, diffusions and lighting, giving a sharper, more contrasted look. With every progressive world, the saturation and aggression of the colours would increase.

When zooms were needed for all worlds, we used an Angenieux Optimo 24-290 Zoom, usually with DDFX 2 or 3 in the mattebox. Varying layers of hu-

man grease and nose grease were applied to the filters when necessary. The 2K setting on the Mini and AMIRA also meant that we could use every focal length on the zoom without hard vignetting.

World One: The normal world that the movie starts in, then constantly cuts back to. Night camera colour temperature setting was 3200K, day 5600K. SIM Toronto had a set of vintage Cooke S2+3 Speed Panchros re-housed so we principally used those. Diffusion was DDFX 2 with a heavy daubing of human grease. No handheld, only Steadicam and studio mode.

World Two: After the first closet pass, our nightmare world one. Camera colour temperature was 5600K at all times.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

25

Clockwise: Karim Hussain csc shooting in closet set in warehouse.

Chris Eigeman pointing on closet set.

Steadicam Op Steven French and actor Jake Manley.

24 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

Prime lenses were ‘80s-era Zeiss Super Speeds, a sharper, contrastier image, mostly wide open at 1.3. Diffusion was DDFX ¼ with light daubs of human grease. Steadicam and studio mode were used, very little handheld.

World Three: After the second closet pass, our nightmare world two. Camera colour temperature was 4800K for a slight difference in all practicals. Prime lenses were Zeiss Super Speeds, wide open. Diffusion was DDFX 2 with heavy human grease and, depending on the sequence, heavy nose grease patterns. All handheld.

World Four – After the third closet pass, nightmare world three, and the climax of the movie. Camera colour temperature

was 5600K. Prime lenses, the Zeiss Super Speeds. DDFX 2 diffusion, with only very slight human grease on everything.

All handheld.

All scenes in the closet would be shot on the 24-290 Zoom only (with the exception of the last closet scene). They would be their own visual ecosystem and have their specific look, subtly varying saturation if the closet door was open or not due to outside light pollution.

SHOOT

It was time to put theory into practice.

Capably aided by our A camera/Steadicam operator Steven French, 1st AC Blain Thrush and an excellent camera team

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

27

Travis Tope, Haley Ramm and young cast.

that also included occasional B camera days operated by Brent Robinson, I could happily rely on framing that followed our ideas.

Gaffer Phil Estevez, key grip Fraser Boyle and their crews diligently helped us make every single one of our abbreviated days. Our enemy was the sun and blue skies, which forced us to split most of our days, shooting interior scenes first with night faked, then go outside to squeeze out whatever darkness nature felt generous enough to offer.

The largest lights on the truck were two ARRI M90s we used for the night cemetery scene on a lift and for daylight work. Our primary night lighting for the nightmarish suburbs of Brampton, Ontario, were Tungsten ARRI T12s through Urban Vapor gel on the tallest stands we could get at William F. White (that had a rather unflattering nickname due to their weight) and ARRI SkyPanel S-60s for fill light. It was a great surprise to discover that shooting on the ALEXA sensor at 1.3 at 800 ASA we could primarily roll off the practical sodium vapour lights already there, turning a diabolical red when we set our camera colour temperature to 5600K.

“It’s always pure pleasure to work with directors who love cinema as I do. An important part of the mise-enscène process always includes marathon sessions of screening films. Not to emulate, but to inspire, to create something new beyond what has already been done.”

For a nightmarish sequence shot in the basement of Casa Loma in Toronto, we used good old 750 Par Cans that could also double for practicals, CELEB 200s through layers of double grid cloth for fill and multiple practical clear Edison bulbs. Single-chip DLP video projectors were also deployed for playback in one scene. With the regular 180-degree shutter angle they flickered, so the whole sequence was done with a shutter angle of 144 degrees, which eliminated the flicker but could pass more subtly without creating a hugely tightened effect on the motion blur, a look I’m not a big fan of.

Our lead character, Jude, spends much time running at top speed through empty, creepy suburban streets, necessitating some camera support that would allow the combination of rapid Steadicam leads and follows, as well as handheld. Since we would be shooting very late hours in neighbourhoods where people actually lived, a quiet vehicle was necessary. Cue the electric Whites Golf Cart to the rescue off of which we did many dynamic running shots.

For the interior of the main house, primarily practicals (I’m still a fan of how a bare, clear tungsten bulb can provide a raw and imposing light source), CELEB 200s, 1x1 Lite Panels (both nearly always shining through two layers of Full Grid Cloth directly on the units) were used. Custom diffused LED units also gave us either large soft sources or tiny fill lights for car work. No process trailers were used, all car shots were either poor man’s or actor-free drives. A SONY A7SII was also used for some second unit roadway shots where rigging a larger camera would be timeconsuming and bulky.

The closet interiors were sets built in that low-budget classic, a warehouse

(this time a rather cramped location that stored dollar store items where we had to shoot around their inventory), ending with the flats brought outside to the parking lot and actually burned on the last day as we filmed.

Working with Chris was brilliant, his experience as a performer was not only a great help to his cast (which also included veterans Gary Cole and Jacinda Barrett), but his flexibility, good humour, knowledge and passion for world cinema was a great plus. It’s always pure pleasure to work with directors who love cinema as I do. An important part of the mise-en-scène process always includes marathon sessions of screening films. Not to emulate, but to inspire, to create something new beyond what has already been done. Producer Tony Roman, a jack-of-all-trades who can help in literally every department, was also a brilliant and integral part of Seven in Heaven’s brain trust.

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After test screenings and some additional photography in early 2018, completion of the movie was suddenly fast-tracked when we were informed that Netflix liked the movie and would distribute it as an exclusive, bypassing theatrical or even traditional VOD distribution. Colour grading by my regular collaborator Jim Fleming at Technicolor Toronto ensued in a rush, him doing his traditionally great job.

This style of distribution is new territory for all of us, and it is also new ground for a studio like Universal to make this kind of sale without any advance publicity or festival play. So, hopefully, you will find our creepy little journey into the inner psyche of the North American suburb on Netflix, and enjoy the colourful traumas of being a teenager, in the dark, in the night.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

27

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VENICE

by John Banovich csc

A

t the end of August, I had the pleasure of taking the Sony VENICE with the latest firmware out into the wilderness to capture wildlife footage in 6K, 16-bit, uncompromised data for an upcoming natural history documentary project. I travelled through British Columbia east to the Alberta border into the depths of the Rocky Mountains. During this drive, I remained in a thick haze of smoke from the accumulation of hundreds of forest fires burning across the province and required a respirator mask, at times finding it hard to breath let alone navigate through it.

This presented a challenge for my compositions as well, especially the landscapes. Rather than rich blue skies and fluffy white clouds, I had to compensate for the change of exposure. Instead the sky was grey and flat with layers of smog throughout my frame.

Making this shoot even more testing, I had only been shipped one AXS 512GB card, and the card adapter for the reader wasn’t included. This meant I only had 30 minutes of storage for all of my 6K material. I also had my Sony F55 and Sony A7R mkIII but limited to 4K. It took me back to the early years filming wildlife with my ARRI III 35 mm, having to carefully select my shots with only 3 x 400’ mags of film a day.

Another consideration was lenses. Most of my wildlife lenses such as the Canon “ultimate” 50-1000 mm were designed for a S35 sensor and were rendered all but useless on the full frame 6K. However, my GL Optics 70-200 mm covered the sensor throughout the complete range and it was a fast 2.8 zoom. I also included my 500 mm telephoto Otto Nemenz cine conversation. Sony was very generous to offer their new 400 mm 2.8 G Master telephoto and 1.4x tele-converter.

28 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

in the Rocky Mountains

Frame grab of the forest fire shot on the Sony F55

Credit: Ivo Vidak

Left: Darren Robertson, John Banovich csc and Pat Higgins with the Sony VENICE and GL Optics 70-200 mm.

Above: Banovich with the VENICE and 400 mm 2.8 G Master telephoto and 1.4x tele-converter.

Getting caught behind the fire line at night made for a very toasty experience. I had crawled into an old, grown-in logging trail to get closer to the forest fire while there was still daylight. Setting up quickly on a long lens, I did not notice the winds starting to push the flames, eventually bringing them around behind me and back up on the other side. Feeling the heat, I loaded my equipment into the back of my truck and left, very happy to have packed extra water.

Two days later, while looking for a large rumoured grizzly boar with my new DJI Mavic Pro 2, I heard the sound of rustling leaves and breaking branches behind only to turn 180 degrees and see him staring at me less than 30 feet away. We looked at each for a while and he eventually sat down, blocking my only way down the minimalist trail up there. The alarm battery on the drone started to go off, and I carefully glanced down to press the RTH (Return to Home). I’m not sure if it was the red blinking lights, the sound of the alarm or the sounds of it decelerating down for a landing, but whatever it was, he wasn’t interested and left.

Looking through the footage later with the Sony RAW Viewer and DaVinci Resolve, I was pleased as to how much detail was retained even watching it on my smaller 4K monitor. More impressive was the latitude I had available to bring those ugly grey smoke clouds far down and clean up most of the haze throughout all the material. The footage of a small herd of mountain goats and a bull moose in a very unique mineral spring at high altitude looked amazing. Sharp, clean and very natural colours. Each frame was a high-quality photograph unto itself.

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

29

Credit: John Banovich csc Credit: Ivo Vidak

Credit: Eric Andersen

A rare Northern Lights moon rise, shot with the Sony A7R mkIII.

John Banovich csc captures a shot on a boat with the VENICE.

Banovich with the VENICE.

The secondary menus were quite similar to what I was used to working with on my F55, so it was a very easy transition.

I shot at 1 fps, 24 fps and 30 fps utilizing the dual ISO. This was a much-needed feature, and I had an opportunity to exploit the 2500 ISO for a shot of a grizzly bear an hour after the sun had gone down. There was still a subtle glow off the atmosphere, but it was insignificant, so I opened my shutter to 180 and my aperture to 4.0, as I was also testing the new Sony G-Master 400 mm telephoto prime with its 1.4x extender.

The content reproduced amazingly well, with almost no noise even at five stops under. The green of the cedar needles, brown of the trunks and light blue of the river rocks came through very easily. Moreover, the deep brown of the grizzly’s fur was retrievable as well.

A good portion of wildlife and natural history material is shot in slow motion in an effort to capture the action, so 60 fps in 6K is a must. Sony announced the details of a planned optional upgrade to support high fame rate – targeting speeds up to 60 fps in 6K, up to 90 fps in 4K, and up to 120 fps in 2K to be released in North America in the spring of 2019.

I would also recommend an ultra high-frame-rate burst – 300, even 600 fps in five-second or longer bursts, using the SXS cards to help buffer the massive volume of data as it is being written to the AXS cards. Another option would be to twin the write, recording simultaneously to both AXS cards.

I would like to offer a big thanks to Darren Robertson and Dale Rechner at Fusion Cine Vancouver for helping me prep and package the VENICE.

30 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

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Tech Column

Gap Between Professional Monitors and Home Screens Narrows

B

ack in the day, what you saw on TV was a colourist’s nightmare.

Those old cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were crude displays without much in the way of balance or nuance.

Then again, the TV stations broadcasting movies and shows couldn’t really control much in the way of saturation and hue.

They aimed for a sweet spot and that was as good as it got. Even the arrival of video tapes didn’t really improve things.

Flash forward 30 or 40 years, and how things have changed. Beautiful 4K flatscreen displays offer a range of colours and blacks in densities we only dreamed of just five or six years ago. But it’s still not perfect, because each display – regardless of the manufacturer and the viewer’s best intentions to set up and calibrate their screen as fastidiously as possible – is still a best-guess rendition of what the creators intended.

Now Sony and Netflix are about to bridge that gap with the launch of a collaborative technology to allow viewing of images just as the cinematographer, colourist and director intended, without guessing and without a lot of back and forth adjustments.

There’s only one catch. You’re going to have to buy a new TV and it’s going to be expensive. Ouch.

32 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

Scott Mirer, vice president, Device Partner Ecosystem at Netflix, said the company was rolling out Netflix Calibrated Mode on two of Sony’s top-of-line TVs this fall.

The lines are the Bravia Master Series A9F OLED and Z9F LED TVs, and they will support any type of content on Netflix, such as 4K and HDR, providing an inimage processing that will automatically calibrate the users’ TV to the settings of the monitors they relied on in postproduction, which may well have been the Sony BVM-X300, costing US$30,000.

“With one simple menu setting, our members can view TV shows, films and documentaries on Netflix as they were meant to be seen, with precise colours, accurate dynamic contrast, and true motion so there’s no ‘soap opera effect,’” says Mirer, adding that one-third of Netflix users have smart TVs supporting HDR. The technology was developed by Sony U.S. picture quality and device experts in collaboration with Netflix colour scientists and incorporated the CalMan colour-calibration software from Portrait Displays, the software developer for highend monitors.

He’s pretty pumped, telling the launch event: “For us, these stories aren’t just TV shows or movies – they’re works of art.

And preserving creative intent is important not only to the storytellers, but also to the viewer, because colour, brightness and sound are all part of the story.”

The question is, will anyone notice?

And will anyone be inspired to invest in a $5,000-and-up TV for a slightly better viewing experience, even though there are other advances incorporated that may be a better overall selling point, such as the Picture Processor X1 Ultimate chip it’s all based on? Certainly, there are some tech geeks with an insatiable appetite for the latest, greatest gadgets, and there may be a few CSCs who may consider it a worthwhile investment.

In theory, it’s simple enough. Netflix presumably inserts some code into the stream, which the TV processor reads and reacts accordingly. Zack Estrin, executive producer of Netflix’s Lost in Space, says he couldn’t tell the difference between the new display and the postproduction Sony BVM-X300.

“One of my VFX guys had a tear in his eye because it finally looked exactly how he intended it,” Estrin said at the launch earlier this year.

The issue, however, is content. Right now, the technology works on Netflixspecific content, about 400 hours of HDR content and 2,000 hours of content in 4K format. Future licensing may make it available to more manufacturers, but Sony traditionally plays its proprietary tech close to its chest, so don’t bet on it, and Netflix isn’t saying if it’s working with anyone else.

Like 3D TV and 4K, it’s a nice-to-have but not a must-have for most consumers, at least until there’s a plethora of content from all sources, not to mention enough broadband capacity to pump the stream through the pipes into all those homes.

Hang on to your cash, though, 8K screens have just been announced.

Ian Harvey is a journalist who has been writing about digital disruption for 20 years. He welcomes feedback and eagerly solicits subject matter ideas at ian@pitbullmedia.ca.

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Shop pro gear online and at select Henry’s locations Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

33

The Masters

This past year was not only the CSC’s 60th anniversary, it also marks the 30 years of recognizing extraordinary excellence through the CSC’s Masters Award. This special honour is conferred upon cinematographers who have transcended from practicing their craft into leaders of their craft by influencing the cinematic art form thorough their exceptional creativity, technical skills and ingenuity. Originally called the Kodak New Century Award, it was renamed the Masters Award in 2014 to reflect industry changes brought about by the digital age.

This is the final installment of a series highlighting the exceptional cinematographers who have received The Masters Award.

By Guido Kondruss

34 • Canadian Cinematographer - December October 2018 2018

Credit: John Narvali

“In recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to the art of cinematography.”

David Greene csc, asc 2017

B

orn on December 19, 1968, in Sarnia, Ontario, David Greene’s interest in the film and television industry began early in his life. By age 15, Greene was a volunteer at the local public access television station where he operated cameras at sporting events and produced shows along with his friends for broadcast. Greene’s love for filmmaking eventually led him to Toronto’s York University and its film school. It was here that his brilliance with cinematography became quickly apparent, becoming the cinematographer of choice for student films. It was also during this time that Greene came to the attention of the CSC, winning the Society’s top student award for cinematography three years in a row, a feat that remains unmatched to this day.

As a professional, Greene hit the ground running, becoming a much in-demand director of photography, shooting music videos, commercials and independent features before moving into U.S. network series and films. Greene has been dubbed the “Quiet Master” by his industry co-workers for his calm demeanor on set while spinning sublime images for the screen. His technical wizardry coupled with his intuitive cinematic interpretations has placed Greene in the rarefied atmosphere as one of North America’s most talented DPs. His passion for cinema, his prowess for orchestrating complex camera moves and his powerful ability to consistently turn words on a page into visual works of art have made Greene a leader in the craft of cinematography. Whether he is portraying the apocalyptic edginess in the television series 12 Monkeys or the lush beauty in the film The Trip to Bountiful, Greene’s visuals, no matter the genre, are forever awe-inspiring.

Greene has received many accolades for his work and creativity, including Gemini awards, Genie and Canadian Screen Award nominations, three ASC nominations and an astounding 11 CSC awards. Greene continues to be based out of Toronto.

By Professionals, For Professionals

CSC ONE DAY POST WORKFLOW WORKSHOP

Credit: John Walker Productions

January 19, 2019: 9:00am to 5:00pm

A one day workshop that gives participants the opportunity to learn how to work with a professional DIT for onset Look management and a professional Colourist at a high end lab for the final colour correct. Both the DP/DIT and DP/Colourist relationship will be explored as well as the technical aspects of each stage of the process.

Information, video and applications: www.csc.ca/education

John Walker csc 2018

J

ohn Walker csc is one of the finest documentary filmmakers in Canada, whose films have garnered national and international critical acclaim.

Born in Montreal on July 5, 1952, Walker is the son of an artist and a commercial photographer. His earliest recollections with a camera were of taking snaps with a Brownie as a young child. By age eight, Walker had graduated to a Rolleiflex and was tagging along with his father on photo shoots. In 1968, Walker snapped a photo of yet-to-be Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau campaigning, which made the cover of Canadian Business magazine. It was Walker’s first paying job as a photographer. He was 15 years old. Walker entered the world of cinema as a young adult working at the legendary Crawley Films in Ottawa, where he learned the art of filmmaking, launching his career as a documentarian.

Walker’s prodigious volume of work over the decades stands as a testament to his lyrical sense of visuals, which he uses effectively to highlight and frame the human condition. His work is deeply personal, and he is uncompromising as an artist, unafraid to experiment with form and content to imprint his perspective. A gifted cinematographer, Walker is also an award-winning director, producer and writer. His films are an expression in diversity with subjects ranging from coal miners losing their jobs in Men of the Deeps to an exploration of Canadian/Quebecois identity in Quebec My Country Mon Pays to the fabled search for the Northwest Passage in his fiction-documentary Passage, which has been hailed as “one of the great triumphs in Canadian documentary film.”Walker has received more than 60 Canadian and international nominations and awards for his films, which include a Gemini and two CSC awards for cinematography.

He is based out of Toronto.

Workshop located at Deluxe Toronto 901 King St.W, Suite, 700 Toronto, M5V 3H5 www.bydeluxe.com

Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018 •

35

Production Notes Calendar

Classifieds

ARROW VI (series)

DP Gordon Verheul csc (odd) & Neil Cervin csc (even)

to April 27, 2019

Vancouver

BLOOD AND TREASURE (series)

Camera Operator Alfonso Maiorana 2nd Unit DP Claudine Sauvé csc

to December 15

Montreal

CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, THE (series)

DP Stephen Maier (alternating episodes)

to December 5

Langley

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW IV (series)

DP David Geddes csc, asc (alternating episodes)

to January 24, 2019

Burnaby

DEPARTURE (series)

DP David Green csc, asc

to December 18

Etobicoke

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR III (series)

DP Mike McMurray csc (even episodes)

to February 12, 2019

Mississauga

EXPANSE, THE IV (series)

DP Jeremy Benning csc

to December 21

Toronto

FLASH V (series)

DP Brenton Spencer csc & Alwyn J. Kumst csc (alternating episodes)

to April 19, 2019

Vancouver

GATES OF PARADISE (MOW)

DP Michael Balfry csc

to December 14

Vancouver

GOOD WITCH, THE V (series)

DP John Berrie csc B Camera Operator Paula Tymchuk

to December 13

Toronto

GRAVITY PRODUCTIONS AKA TWILIGHT ZONE (series)

Craig Wrobleski csc Operator/Steadicam Rob Crone

to March 8, 2019 North

Vancouver

csc, cfc, dg

GREEN HARVEST II

(series) DP Glen Keenan csc (odd episodes) & Andrew (Tico) Poulakakis csc (even episodes) B Camera Operator J.P. Locherer csc

to December 7

Toronto

GUEST OF HONOUR (feature)

DP/Operator Paul Sarossy csc, asc, bsc 1st Assistant Ciaran Copelin

to December 5

Toronto

INK (series)

DP François Dagenais csc (alternating episodes) Camera Operator Jim Van Dijk

to April 12, 2019

Richmond

iZOMBIE V (series)

DP Michael Wale csc

to January 21, 2019

North Vancouver

JANE OF THE DESERT (feature)

DP Catherine Lutes csc Camera Operator Yoann Malnati

to December 12,

Etobicoke

LOST IN SPACE II (series)

DP C. Kim Miles csc (alternating episodes) B Camera Operator Ken Krawczyk csc

to February 12, 2019

Burnaby

MAGIC HOUR (series)

DP François Dagenais csc

to April 12, 2019

Richmond

MURDERS, THE (series)

DP Kamal Derkaoui csc

to December 20

Burnaby

OCTOBER FACTION, THE (series)

B Camera Operator & 2nd Unit DP Perry Hoffman

to December 21

Toronto

PUPPY PREP ACADEMY (series)

DP/Operator Mark Irwin csc, asc

to December

14 Victoria

REX (series)

DP Stephen Reizes csc

to December 21

St. John’s

RIVERDALE III (series)

DP Brendan Uegama csc to

March 30, 2019

Langley

SEE (series)

B Cam Operator/2nd Unit DP Ian Seabrook csc

to March 30, 2019

Delta, B.C.

SNOWPIERCER I (series)

DP Thomas Burstyn csc, nzcs (alternating episodes)

to December 22

Langley

SUPERGIRL IV (series)

DP Michael Storey csc (alternating episodes)

to May 15, 2019

Langley

SUPERNATURAL XIV (series)

DP Serge Ladouceur csc Camera Operator Brad Creasser

to March 26, 2019

Burnaby

TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING (feature)

DP/Operator Daniel Grant csc

to December 7

Oakville

TWILIGHT ZONE (series)

DP Craig Wrobleski csc

to March 8, 2019

North Vancouver

DECEMBER 4-7, SIGGRAPH Asia, Tokyo, sa2018.siggraph.org JANUARY 19, CSC Workflow Topics Module, Toronto, csc.ca 24-Feb. 3, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, sundance.org 25-27, IMAGO International Cinematographers Symposium, Vienna, imago.org 31, CSC Awards entry deadline, csc.ca

36 • Canadian Cinematographer - December 2018

FEBRUARY 28-March 3, Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Kingston, ON, kingcanfilmfest.com MARCH 25-31, Canadian Screen Week, Toronto, academy.ca/awards 16, IMAGO International Awards for Cinematography, Belgrade, imagoawards.org 23, CSC Awards, Arcadian Court, Toronto, csc.ca

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE Canon CN-E Prime Lenses 24mm T1.5, 35mm T1.5, 50mm T1.5 In excellent condition. EF mount, covers S35 and full frame. Asking $3400 each.

Contact info@johnker.com.

35 4x5.6 Schneider filters: ND’s, color correction, diffusion, grads 2 138mm Tiffen Tobacco, Sunset grad 2 138mm Schneider Tru Pola, 85 Pola 2 138mm Schneider CU diopter #1, Cu Diopter • includes case and pouches for every filter.

• Excellent condition • 4x5.6 and 138mm. clears included Today’s value in U.S. dollars $13,705 U.S. Selling price $9,500 CDN PLEASE CONTACT: Bert Tougas H: 514-634-2374 C: 514-913-2376 I have 15 - 3x3 Tiffen filters for sale - fogs, Promists Grads, 812's etc. all with cases $185.00 - contact Barry Casson csc - 250-7212113 or e-mail bcasson@speakfilm.com TIFFEN ULTRA STEADICAM , HD Ultrabrite color monitor ,HDMI Decimator 2,Iso-elastic arm, 4-24 volt batteries, 1-Pag battery charger 24v,1Lentequip battery charger 12/24v,Klassen vest and carrying bag, 1 Preston F1+Z transmitter 1 Preston MDR-1 receiver,1 Preston control, 2 motors, 2 batteries, charger, numerous Hill motor mount brackets rossette brackets and rods, 1 long dovetail plate,1 short dovetail plate, 1 docking bracket,1 fgs wheel chair/ dolly adaptor,rain cover, too many cables, hard cases and accessories to list.This rig was well maintained looks new,all it needs is a few upgrades. $ 35000.00 can 416 817 3938 or acadian@ rogers.com Rick Kearney Preston FIZ 2 kit - $5,000 2 x Arri MB-20 studio matte box - $8,000 Arri LMB-15 Clip-on matte box - $1,200 Power-Pod Classic - $5,000 Please contact Michael Balfry csc @: michaelbalfry@gmail.com for a complete list of items.

Looking for a set of old, no longer used, standard legs with Mitchell base. Or any type of disused heavy camera support.

This is to be used to mount a Mitchell BNCR camera in order to place it on display. Anyone with access to such a tripod or with information about one, please contact me: rawi@earthlink.net 416-691-6865

CAMERA CLASSIFIED IS A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR CSC MEMBERS. For all others, there is a one-time $25 (plus GST) insertion fee. Your ad will appear here and on the CSC’s website, www.csc.ca. If you have items you would like to buy, sell or rent, please email your information to editor@csc.ca.

@canadiancinematographer @csc_CDN

Canadian Cinematographer welcomes feedback, comments and questions about the magazine and its contents. Please send your letters to editor@csc. ca. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

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